Tennis

Tennis is a game of endurance and extreme discipline. Tennis rules are fairly straight forward. The game is to be played on a rectangular court of length 78 ft (23.77m) x 27ft (8.23m) width. Where there is a doubles match (4 x 4) the width is to be extended to 36 ft. (10.97 m). The court is therefore divided in the middle with a net that should be 3ft (0.914) high supported by posts 3 1/2ft (1.07m) in height.

The net can be hung with a metal cable or cord and should completely fill the space between the posts. A band must be placed at the top of the net to cover the cord or cable and is to be completely white. The cable or cord’s maximum diameter should be 1/3 inch (0.8 cm). The maximum width of the strap 2 inches (5cm) and the band shall be 2 inches (5cm) and 2 ½ inches (6.35 cm). Tennis rules state that for doubles match the centers of the net post shall be 3 ft. (0.914 cm) outside the doubles court at each side.

The ball

The event organizer needs to announce the amount of balls in advance of the even be it 2,3,4 or 6. There is provision for ball changes however this must occur either after an odd number of games or at the beginning of a set. A common question is what happens is a ball is broken during play? Tennis rules of the ITF (International Tennis Federation) states that the point should be replayed in this scenario. But if the ball is soft at the end of a point the point should not be replayed. As it pertains to the special cases of ball replacements the ITF takes the aforementioned decisions to be fair but not written as laws of the game.

Scoring in a match

Scoring is as follows beginning with the server: “love”- no point, “15” – first point, “30” second point, “40” third point, “Game”- fourth point. With the exception that each player/team has won three points the score is “Deuce”. After “Deuce” the score is “Advantage” for the team that wins the next point. Now if the same team wins the next point that team wins the “Game” however if the opposing team wins the point the score is now “Deuce”. These are just some basic tennis rules.